Top End Sightings

Hi All, I just finished a couple of weeks birding around the Top End where, as Phil Gregory mentioned in his post last week, things are very dry. It also seems that the dry conditions further inland are resulting in a few unusual things going on with the bird life, although those that live up there may be better placed to comment. I don’t think I have ever seen as many White-winged Trillers as there were this year. They were common in Darwin, and it seemed the most common passerine in some places, and on several occasions both White-winged and Varied Trillers were recorded at the same site. I recall at this time of year I usually only find them further south around Katherine, and definitely not in the same numbers as this year. Perhaps most unusual was three Pied Honeyeaters seen at Sullivan Campground near Victoria River Crossing, well outside their ‘normal’ range, as well as hundreds and perhaps thousands of Budgerigars around Timber Creek. There were almost no finches found from Darwin south through Katherine, and I only found numbers from Vic River Crossing southwest and around Darwin. Below is a summary of sites and interesting sightings. Buffalo Creek – Chestnut Rail, Rainbow Pitta Lee Point – Rainbow Pitta East Point – Large-tailed Nightjar Nightcliff – Oriental Plover, Barking owl with 3 fledglings, Arafura Fantail, the usual waders Leanyer STW – Little Ringed Plover, Mangrove Golden Whistler, Mangrove Robin Holmes Jungle – Eastern Yellow Wagtail, Little Curlew Howard Springs – Rainbow Pitta, Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove Pine Creek/Copperfield Dam – Hooded Parrot, Northern Rosella, Bar-breasted Honeyeater, Cockatiel, Oriental Plover Umbrawarra Gorge – Partridge Pigeon, Silver-backed Butcherbird Gunlom – Northern Rosella, Black-banded Fruit-Dove, Chestnut-backed Buttonquail, Sandstone Shrike-Thrush, White-lined Honeyeater, Chestnut-quilled Rock-Pigeon Plum Tree Creek – Sandstone Shrike-Thrush, White-lined Honeyeater, Chestnut-quilled Rock-Pigeon Yellow Waters – Little Kingfisher, Sarus Crane, Arafura Fantail Central Arnhem Road – Northern Shrike-Tit, Red-backed Kingfisher, Long-tailed Finch, Golden-backed Honeyeater, Black-tailed Treecreeper Old Vic River Crossing – Purple-crowned Fairywren, Star Finch Vic River Escarpment – White-quilled Rock-Pigeon Buchanan Highway – Gouldian Finch, Long-tailed Finch, Red-backed Kingfisher Timber Creek – Budgerigar, Red-browed Pardalote, Pictorella Mannikin, Spinifex Pigeon, Buff-sided Robin, Grey-fronted Honeyeater, Oriental Plover Happy to give more information to anyone interested. Good birding! Nick =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au http://birding-aus.org ===============================